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Show 412 MR. G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON ON [APr- ^ it in great quantities in the cultivated fieldsl. Eozet has indicated its occurrence in the neighbourhood of Oran 2. Loche found it about Algiers; and, finally, Lataste 3 himself took it in the plain of Mitidja, at Arba, near Algiers, and in the fields of Azesga, to the north-east of Fort National, " en Kabylie." Lataste did not find it so commonly as Bozet would have led him to expect, and he supposes that that author had confounded several other species with the present one. This species is not included in Lataste's work on the Mammals of Tunis , so that I presume that it does not occur in that country. General Remarks. Lataste B states that sometimes the back shows " d'un brun plus terne, et le gris domine sur les faces inferieures," which variation appears to be produced especially in the "pays meridionaux," and he has noted this variety also from Cardillac, Gironde, France, from Ciudad Eeal, Spain, and from Algeria. Side by side with this he states that he has met some individuals, generally young, which in coloration only were indistinguishable from common Mice. He adds (footnote) that these colours get clearer in alcohol, and after a time such specimens in alcohol are indistinguishable from the normal specimens. 12. Mus SYLVATICUS TAURICUS, subsp. nov. Mus sylvaticus, C. G. Danford and E. B. Alston, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 62. Type. No. 77.8.13.9 (in alcohol) (British Museum Collection), from the Zebil Bulgar Dagh, Asia Minor, collected by Mr. C. G. Danford, on the 5th January, 1876. Distinguishing Characteristics. This single specimen from Asia Minor cannot be identified with any known form of Long-tailed Field-mouse. It cannot be placed either with the large Mice of Eastern Europe, or with the not very much smaller 31. s. arianus of Asia. The skull, although the teeth are worn, has a total length of only 23 mm., and is thus smaller even than the smallest Western European subspecies. Distribution. Uncertain: only known from the type specimen. General Remarks. Perhaps the nearest ally of this little Mouse is 31. s. algirus, another little known subspecies. It may be a parallel form to the small Weasel of the Caucasus and Asia Minor, to which I have recently given the subspecific name of 31. nivalis caucasicus. 13. Mus SYLVATICUS MAJOR. Mus sylvaticus var. major, G. Eadde, Beis. Sib. i. p. 180, pi. v. figs. 3 & 4 « (1862). 1 Voyage en Barbarie (1789). 2 Voyage clans la Regence dAlger (1833). 3 " Faune des Vertebres de Barbarie," Actes Soc Linn. Bordeaux vol xxxix p. 135 (1885). 4 Catalogue critique des Mammiferes apelagiques sauvages de la Tunisie (Paris 1887). k 5 "Note sur les Souris cVAlgerie," Act. Soc. Linn.Bord. vol. xxxvii. on 17-18 (1883). ll' |